In the twilight at Subiaco Oval, the stars had come out, and standing 14 points up at three-quarter-time Geelong's looked set to shine brighter than Fremantle's - just.

While Dockers skipper Matthew Pavlich had reasserted himself as the undoubted leader of Mark Harvey's brat pack, the Cats had Paul Chapman in the form that won him a Norm Smith Medal , and Gary Ablett with the style that earned a long-awaited Brownlow Medal.

But just as they had in the first two weeks, the Dockers stayed strong.

Pavlich goaled within seconds of the final term starting, Stephen Hill and Hayden Ballantyne countered Hawkins' third and then as the Dockers have done themselves so many times, forced Geelong to crack under pressure.

With the visitors a single point up and two minutes left, a serious-looking knee injury to Nick Suban halted the game and gave everyone a chance to breathe on a breathless afternoon.

Instead of crumbling, Fremantle rose. Three successive points gave it the lead, and Geelong could not escape. And when Corey Enright's kick-in found Duffield, he straightened, fired and launched celebrations not seen since the club's only finals win in 2006.

With Perth rival West Coast in trouble for phoning home on Saturday, Fremantle was going for its best start in history, and one of the top spots on the AFL ladder and proof it is really a team to write home about.

It is a measure of how far opinion of Fremantle has risen in two weeks that it would even be considered a chance against Geelong, even without Cameron Mooney, Matthew Scarlett and Brad Ottens.

But the real measure comes against the competition's best, and as Harvey pointed out in the build-up, if you stop one Geelong star, then another will get you.

For the Dockers in the first half, that equation was taken to the extreme - holding 20 of the Geelong number at bay, but failing to get hold of two. The two - Ablett and Chapman - were unstoppable.

Unhappy after 38 possessions last week, Ablett must surely have liked his game this week. Everyone else did.

Not only were his numbers huge, but so was the timing. Time and again when his team needed a spark, he was there. And if he wasn't, his doppelganger Chapman stepped into the breach.

The first half developed into the kind of toe-to-toe slugfest fans of Danny Green hope to see down the road in Perth on Wednesday.

Swinging from the hip, Ablett or Chapman would connect. But punching above its weight, Fremantle, led by Pavlich, would counter.

Starting with the intense pressure that has marked their improvement, the Dockers harried the premier as hard as Hawthorn had last week.

But just like the Hawks, they could not land enough blows to leave Mark Thompson's side flattened.

Chapman was handed his first goal by successive 50-metre penalties, the second resulting in Ballantyne being reported for pinching an opponent.

But Pavlich replied, Anthony Morabito countered by selling a dummy to Ablett and the body blow came when Cameron Ling was injured in an impact with Michael Johnson that let third-game revelation Michael Barlow run free.

He capitalised with his first goal, but Ablett replied with his second of the quarter, to go with the six contested possessions, two clearances, three hard-ball gets and one tackle.

Josh Hunt's lightning hands were matched by the feet of Ablett, who finished with venom to seemingly take the bite out of the Dockers' upstarts.

But with Barlow off with the same ailment as his tagger Ling, another of the Dockers' juveniles, Morabito, needed two moments to convince the Dockers' faithful that using the club's first-draft choice on him had been worth it.

After elevated rookie Matt de Boer made his own mark with a nomination for miss of the season, Morabito goaled twice from different pockets but with grace reminiscent of Chris Judd.

Weeks ago in a meaningless pre-season clash at Fremantle Oval, Geelong had asserted itself brutally at the start of the third quarter. And here it did it again.

While not as ruthless as that day, when Geelong kicked eight in a row, the four in succession in this game looked to be worth four points.

But this, it seems, is a different Fremantle.

PLAYER WATCHGEELONGGary Ablett: Football watchers are sometimes guilty of forgetting how good he is - not in this game. His first half, when Geelong struggled, consisted of 20 possessions, 12 contested, three tackles, three clearances, three goals, and kept them afloat.

FREMANTLEMatthew Pavlich: Pavlich reasserted himself as the leader of the Fremantle brat pack as Mark Harvey has christened them. Five goals, most kicked when his team needed them most, were inspirational.

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WHERE MATCH WAS WONFremantle simply refused to lie down. With Ablett on fire and 21 points behind, the Dockers' best stood up.

WHERE MATCH WAS LOSTThe final two minutes should have been where Geelong showed its mettle. But after Nick Suban was stretchered off, the Cats could not escape, with Paul Duffield applying the killer blow.